1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auction method and system, and more particularly to an auction method and system is based on haggling the price down to satisfy the buyer, auction system manager and seller.
2. Description of Related Art
Auction, one of mankind's old trade ways, can be traced back to 500 B.C.'s Babylon. The modes of the auction include English auction, Dutch auction, Sealed-bid auction and Double auction . . . etc. In terms of English auction, a seller proposes a starting price for an tender of item and many buyers make different competitive bids based on the starting price, and then the supreme bid of all competitive bids is a bidding price in time that set up in advance, the buyer making the bidding price is the bid-winner to gains the item after paying the bidding price to the seller for shopping the item. Most online tenders are English auctions.
In terms of Dutch auction, a seller proposes a high starting price for an tender of item and many buyers make bids by reducing price depended on a certain price differential, the tender will be concluded until the price of one bid is accepted that is a bidding price and the bidding price is paid by the bid-winner.
Sealed-bid auction is popular on the online auction and is second only to English auction. The buyers make bids in a secret manner, each buyer can only make one bid and the buyers do not know the bid each other. When the end time is reached, the auction system manager discloses all prices of bids, and the supreme bid of all bids is a bidding price to win the tender. If the payment is in accordance with the supreme bid, the sealed-bid auction is called the first price sealed-bid auction. However, if the payment is in accordance with the second high bid, the sealed-bid auction is called the second price sealed-bid auction that is named Vickrey auction too. In terms of Double auction, the buyers and the seller can propose the expected prices individually, and the tender is concluded when the expected price of the buyer is same with the one of the seller.
Regardless on the online shopping or the materialized shopping, the psychology of human nature is never changed on haggling the price down and negotiating the price from ancient times to the present, that is, the seller hope that the higher the selling price is, the better the selling price is and the buyer hope that the lower the purchasing price is, the better the purchasing price is. The price negotiation is never suspended from the small commerce on the traditional food market to the business of more than one hundred million on the international trade. It is difficult to find the balance based on the thought between the seller expects the high selling price and the buyer expects the low purchasing price. English auction system is the conventional auction generally used nowadays; many buyers make bids after the seller proposes a starting price, the bid method is increasing the price based on the start price, and the bid-winner is the only one buyer that makes the supreme bid. The money flow is that the item is shipped to the bid-winner after the seller receives the bidding price from the bid-winner and the seller pays a commission to the auction system manager, such as YAHOO auction, eBay auction, FORBES auction . . . etc. as is known to all.
However, above-mentioned conventional auction systems have the following shortcomings:
1. The seller has to propose a starting price for a tender, and the starting price is not the expected price of the seller since the seller will consider if the starting price is too high.
2. The seller receives a bidding price after concluding the tender and has to pay a part of bidding price as a commission to the auction system manager, and the commission will be shifted to the buyer.
3. The income of auction only satisfies the seller or only benefits the seller, and the buyer has to pay the high price possible for satisfying the seller. Moreover, the buyer must pay the high price on the tender of an item even if the result is beyond the seller's expectations. Therefore, the conventional auction has the drawback on unilateral benefit only.
4. The buyer has to pay higher and higher price and can not make a deal with a price lower than the starting price. Furthermore, the buyer makes a deal with a price higher than the market price.
In the conventional auction system, many buyers make bids after the seller proposes a starting price, the bid method is increasing the price based on the start price, and the bid-winner is the only one buyer that makes the supreme bid. The money flow is that the item is shipped to the bid-winner after the seller receives the bidding price from the bid-winner and the seller pays the commission to the auction system manager.